Back in August, YDBRposted some BTS pictures from Keke Palmer’s Fuzionmagazine photo shoot. See the original post here. The official covers just went viral and the child star turned adult actress and media mogul looks gorgeous on a double cover. For this issue, Keke was styled by celebrity stylist Olori Swank and shot in Los Angeles by photographer ëaštøn śçhīrrå. Keke was such an adorable little girl and it’s great to see her grown into a beautiful woman.

Inside, she talks about her doing what she wants, transitioning from a child star to an adult actress, on her competition, boyfriend, playing Chilli in the upcoming TLC biopic Crazy Sexy Cool: The TLC Story, and fashion inspiration. Below are some highlights.

On doing what she wants to do, despite outside opinions (like living with her boyfriend):

“I found that the more you stop thinking and just follow what you like and what you love, you can create your own style and other people will catch on to it.”

“Even though I’m in the entertainment industry most my advice or mentors come from outside of the industry. I don’t like to cloud my head too much with the Hollywood world—I really just talk to my mom, talk to God, my family is very close so if I have any issues I just talk to them about it and they help me through it.”

On transitioning from child star to adult actress

“It’s definitely been a, I don’t wanna say hard, but a big transition from being a kid and going up into an adult, while all being on screen.”

On her competition in the game

“I’m a perfectionist, I’m a Virgo, so it’s like I gotta do everything right especially when it comes to work…..My mom always taught me as a kid to compete with yourself.”

On her boyfriend of 3 years

“I am dating someone right now, we have been dating for three years now he’s a great guy, but I’m definitely in that part of my life where I’m really focusing on doing what I need to do and getting what I need to do get done and same as him. So it’s more so us focusing on ourselves and then getting back to each other.”

On playing Chilli in VH1’s upcoming “Crazy Sexy Cool: The TLC Story”

“At the end the day I want her to be proud of my performance in the movie. She texted me when she saw the movie and was just like there couldn’t have been a better person that could have done it, I’m so proud of you, she and I really got a close relationship out of working on the movie.”
Alternative career- “ If I wasn’t an entertainer I would probably be a hair stylist. My family is full of hair stylist, my grandmother was a hair stylist for 40 years, my aunt is a hair stylist, my cousin is a hair stylist, I mean everybody in my family is a hair stylist, I would probably just be the loud mouth hair stylist.”

On fashion inspiration

“One of my favorite style icons would have to be Nicole Richie, I just oh my gosh, I literally go to her Instagram page and stare at it like this for about 20 minutes. Her style is so impeccable; she’s just classy, fun, cool, edgy all at the same time. As far as music I think everyone loves Rihanna’s style— I like how fearless she is, I think that’s something everybody can love about Rihanna, she does what she wants and she feels comfortable in her decisions. That’s a really hard thing to do especially when you’re in the limelight, doing what you want and being comfortable in what you and loving who you are.”